I was a bit of a target coming home tonight from Nth Syd to DH via Lilyfield Rd. I'd just bought a TT helmet and was stuck as to how to get it home... So i wore it and strapped my usual helmet around the stem. The amount of riders that gave it a little bit extra was alarming! Fortunately i am coming into some form so most riders were blown away.

I did have a condender though. Carbon roadie in lycra was pretty keen to make a point. He passed me on the way to the anzac bridge so i sat on his wheel. He gave it everything heading up then started freewheeling on the way down. I apologised on my way past him on the way down as i was on my fixie and couldn't slow to his pace. He then passed me when we hit lilyfield road so once again i sat on his wheel. As we headed up the hill he started to slow again, so guess what? Yes i passed him again! This time the message may have sunk in that i wasn't going away as he kept his distance for the rest of our trip

Riding in this morning I saw a fellow commuter as I got on the M7 pathway - I thought I would test to see how much petrol I had in the tank and started to chase carefully. Slowly closed the gap to a about 100m and then he saw me. It was on but I don't think either of us were in the mood to destroy ourselves slowly I caught up and passed on a long uphill - when I got closer it seemed to be an even battle - two blokes on about 20+ y.o. bikes, both with heavy backpack or panniers, both MAMIL's, both looking just to get to work.

Very happy to see some action - there appear to be more people out and about now so maybe more action happening soon.

I got caught and passed on the Canada Bay run and then was able to return the favour going through Five Dock. Our ways then parted as I go around Iron Cove to Birkenhead Point before playing with the traffic on Victoria Rd.

As I was passing the Lilyfield overpass he came off the overpass and it was on for the ANZAC Bridge! He managed to get my wheel on the approach to the bridge and then hang on until 2/3rd's the way up and then I can only assume that there was a pop of some kind as he disappeared off my wheel.

Strawburger wrote:I was a bit of a target coming home tonight from Nth Syd to DH via Lilyfield Rd. I'd just bought a TT helmet and was stuck as to how to get it home... So i wore it and strapped my usual helmet around the stem. The amount of riders that gave it a little bit extra was alarming! Fortunately i am coming into some form so most riders were blown away.

I did have a condender though. Carbon roadie in lycra was pretty keen to make a point. He passed me on the way to the anzac bridge so i sat on his wheel. He gave it everything heading up then started freewheeling on the way down. I apologised on my way past him on the way down as i was on my fixie and couldn't slow to his pace. He then passed me when we hit lilyfield road so once again i sat on his wheel. As we headed up the hill he started to slow again, so guess what? Yes i passed him again! This time the message may have sunk in that i wasn't going away as he kept his distance for the rest of our trip

haha, yep, that'd be Ballarat for you. The pub up on the left after the first roundabout in the video used to do a mean parma, last time I was there the newish publican had wrecked the joint though, staff unhappy, parma was sub-par.. Very disappointed, all the locals left too.

Had another race this morning, although it wasn't really a race, spotted an older gent on a bike about a block away from me so had to give it the beans to catch up, when I caught up to him I realised he wasn't riding that fast, but it was hard to pass cause he was wobbling all over the road.. So no, it wasn't a real race, but hey, still counts!

Not sure if this is classed as commuter racing. We were commuting home, the long way, well past the bmx track and a mate and I decided to have a few laps, haven't uploaded the full race video, but here was warm up lap no. 1..... Got off lightly this time, only managed to bent a brake lever.... Didn't realize they hadn't packed the first jump down since they'd modified it... lol.

Yesterday Riding to work, steel roadie, backpack and powermeter (need it because HRM is useless to me) sitting on 90% FTP (AT) 32kmh on a very quiet stretch of PSP (middle of nowhere) get passed by lyrca clad roadie with a noisy RD doing 35kmh. Free ride I think and follow his wheel, now riding at 85% FTP, but moving faster. After 1km he grunts a word, could not make it out, a km later after slight rise (and end of strava segment), he slows. I go to the front and keep up the 35kmh pace thinking I get maybe 2km out of me at that pace. First 800m easy, slight decline, no real effort to keep the speed, (more of an effort not to go too fast) I can here Mr noisy RD behind me. Flattens out, slight rise,it is an effort at 110% FTP, but nothing major, but the only noise I here is my RD, he is gone nowhere to be seen. Did no see another rider for 20km

Today fully committed to CCR, riding steel commuter with guards, rack and panniers, dressed in baggies, then two flats which required catching train and missing storm cell on last past of ride.

I am an evil bastard. Rider in front, I watch him out of the saddle every slight rise. On purpose, I slowly reel him in, 5m behind as we go through the S onto the only real incline 400m at 4%. I catch him, power past saying "Good Morning" and keep going at a constant 32kmh, not changing my cadence or getting out the saddle (I can do it much faster, but that looks like an effort), just a quick glance back at the top of the rise to make sure he was demoralised ;-)

Bit of action this morning. One trouncing, and one win.. Passed a couple of MTB mounted riders on the run down Kissing Point Rd. I’m fairly cautious along the steep downhill section of the cycleway into Brown’s Waterhole and people I’ve passed on the run down the hill often catch up there. So it was today, just as I started the climb up the other side, the two riders caught up and came past me. Fair enough, I thought, as they were both much younger than me, and alas, my best climbing days are behind me. One rider had the look of a climber, slim, and with a smooth unhurried style and good cadence. He quickly pulled away from us both. The other chap, who had come past first and travelling hard, seemed to be fading, as I was reeling him in as we rounded the first steep corner on the climb. Pulled alongside and passed him shortly after and was around 100 metres ahead by the time I reached the start of Vimera rd.

Moral of the story: if you use momentum to pass someone at the bottom of a hill, it’s best to have the wherewithal to make it stick on the climb up the other side.

Clip-in CupThe ‘Clip-in Cup’ is often a precursor, or even a necessary enabler to a successful Commuter Cup Race. Some of the sounds associated with the Clip-in Cup are:

1. Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh – the trackstand,2. Click – the sound of a single clip-in,3. Click, clunk – the sound of a missed clip-in,4. Click, clunk, grrr – the sound of a cleat striking the road under force as a result of a mis-clip

A dark, spring evening; we are four random cyclists waiting beneath a 400m, 4% grade, light-to-light section of city-fringe dual-carriageway. I roll behind a muscular commuter on a drop-bar racer with an 80’s aluminium loop tri-bar. Click, clunk, he missed the left. Click, sorted that. I am now riding on his three-quarter left. Click, clunk, grrr. Click, clunk; he missed the right clip-in. In a Clip-in Cup variation, we have click, clunk, grrr and the embellishment "oh, for fxxks sake!!” I am now directly beside him. I look over at him in the half-light of the street lamps, “Embarrassing isn’t it,” and smile at him in an understanding way. He kind of nods.

I am riding at the same pace as him, and I am riding very tight to his bars. A tri-fail clip-in saga is probably a bit ego-deflating. I can feel his mind rummaging around for a solution. The solution he extracts is of course ‘overcompensation.’ He now rummages in a different section of the mind, one also requiring the agreement of the body. He extracts from his sporting tool kit, ‘THE HAMMER,’ which he precedes to ‘DROP’ furiously. It turns out that he doesn’t have a very large hammer, not any sort of sledge hammer for sure, more the sort of small hammer you would keep in the kitchen drawer for craftwork. Five to seven vigorous, groan accompanied, pedal stompings later, he resumes his seat. But he is now 5m ahead of his shame.

Well, he would be, but for the fact that I notice he is wearing knicks. Now knicks, as we know, come in two main varieties. Bib and non-bib. These were a type I had not previously seen though – Hipster knicks. They were worn low down, barely covering the buttock, but with some snazzy boxers emblazoned with a shinny, blingy brand on the wide elastic waistband. ‘Nice shorts,’ I ventured. His response seemed to indicate that our friendly chat had ended and that, as he had dropped my weak ass, I should be more politely and quietly vanquished.

Riding west along Waratah St Sutherland, almost at the roundabout at the top of the hill and I see a cyclist ride north along Railway Pde towards Jannali, the direction I was heading. Took me about 5km to catch him outside Como pub. Had a quick chat to him before he dropped me before reaching Oatley.

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